The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.60.3

c11.60.3

It follows, therefore, that the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal sacrifice refers to some night not included in the regular nights of the Gavâm-ayanam. It is true that the Ati-râtra is performed at the beginning and the end of every Sattra, and in one sense it is, therefore, a trans-sattra or ati-sattra sacrifice. But that does not account for the name Ati-râtra, as the Sattra is not held during night. We must, therefore, hold that the two Ati-râtras were originally performed not at the beginning and the end of a Sattra, but at the beginning and the end of a night, which occured or intervened between the last and the first day of the Sattra. When this night ended with an Ati-râtra, the usual Sattra began; and as the sun was above the horizon during the period producing the regular succession of days and nights, no Ati-râtra was needed during the Sattra, for, as stated in the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa, the object of the Ati-râtra was gained. But the Sattra closed with the long night, and the Ati-râtra had, therefore, again to be performed at the end of the Sattra to drive the Asuras from this night. I have shown before that we have direct and reliable authority in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ to hold that the Gavâm-ayanam was once completed in ten months or 300 days, and it was, therefore, appropriately closed with and introduced by an Ati-râtra.